¡Hola agradadores del planeta! 🌎
Here you go! Your weekly dose of birds nests, rabbit holes and bee hives that I've discovered or re-visited over the last week. Enjoy this mix of treats, tools and thoughts - all for a better world.
1. What I'm re-reading: David Graeber's 'On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant' - This is a short 7-minute read that I return to every year. It's a healthy annual reminder to think long and hard on the kind of work I do. This year, I'm considering how this phenomenon relates to the social impact and humanitarian sectors. What percentage of nuestra work falls into the 'bullshit' category? And, in a sector that always seems to lead to burnout, how can we use technological advancements to reduce our work load and, in doing so, protect our general health and wellbeing?
2. What I'm using: El FSI's brilliant list of resources for small charities - Very sadly, El FSI cerró a principios de este año tras años de trabajo apoyando a pequeñas organizaciones benéficas con orientación experta. No obstante, esta página de legado contiene una lista impresionante de enlaces de salida a los mejores directorios de recaudación de fondos, comunidades de Facebook, apoyo pro bono y mucho más. Una ventanilla única para el desarrollo de organizaciones benéficas. Marcar como favorito Guardar Compártelo.
3. Qué estoy comiendo: quesos veganos fermentados de [en]PERFECTO y Väcka - Think you love cheese too much to be vegan? Think again! These semi-cured cheeses made from cashews and other nuts, fermented and full of nourishing probiotics are simply next level. Whilst these are two of my Spain-centred favourites, there are great UK options too. Check out this list of the UK's top artisan vegan cheese-makers para alternativas.
4. Lo que me pregunto ¿Qué hacen los becarios ahora que ChatGPT lo hace todo por nosotros? - Those who are or have been grant writers will know all too well the pain and frustration that comes from writing gazillions of marginally different answers to funder's application questions. But now, since most organisations have reams of previous grant applications that can be copied and pasted into AI software to train it in your style and field, grant applications should now take us 5% of the time they previously took. What does this mean? Are we all just sending off more grant applications? Or are we all simply more relaxed?
5. Quote I'm pondering: Lord Blunket this week on the realities of 'safe passage' routes - "But we do have favoured individuals and unfavored individuals. The Ukrainians are obviously, for all the reasons we know, favoured. Although the Afghan settlement route was limited, they were favoured. The Hong Kong route is very favoured. We've taken 150,000 last year from Hong Kong. Hardly anybody knows about this, and if they did they'd probably be up in arms about it, but they're seen as entrepreneurial, innovative... So we pick and choose, don't we? Who we like, what we want them to do, and why we want them here." This was a fascinating discussion hosted by the Aspen Institute UK on the topic of 'How do you achieve safe passage?'. Find out more aquí. Aspen UK también ha creado recientemente un Líderes emergentes Becas (a la que tuve la suerte de incorporarme el año pasado). La beca está dirigida a personas de entre 21 y 35 años residentes en el Reino Unido. Si quieres participar, avísame.
That's it for this week. Please let me know your thoughts and feedback - and send anything you think should be included in upcoming weeks my way.
